The invention relates to a handling apparatus for objects, in particular bobbins of wound material webs, having at least one telescopic member comprising retractable and extendable telescopic parts, in particular telescopic cylinders, it being possible, in order to retract telescopic parts, to transmit at least a partial force onto the telescopic parts by means of a tension member.
Telescopic handling apparatuses are of increasing interest in packaging technology for the automatic handling of objects which are to be packaged, of packages or, in particular, of packaging material. The handling apparatuses, also called robots, have to permit movements of load-bearing members in various directions. The invention relates to such robots or to the most important elements of the same, namely the telescopic handling apparatuses.
A preferred application area for telescopic members of this type is constituted, in packaging technology, by apparatuses for handling wound webs of packaging material, that is to say bobbins. The latter are gripped on the outer circumference by a retaining means or in a central opening by a load-bearing pin. The movability of said retaining means is effected preferably by a plurality of separately controllable telescopic members. An example of such a handling apparatus is the subject matter of DE 42 21 052.6. In the case of this apparatus, three long-stroke pressure-medium cylinders, distributed in a star-shaped manner, are provided as retaining and actuating members for a load-bearing pin for receiving a bobbin of material. The present case is concerned with the special technical design of these pressure-medium cylinders, but also with telescopic members for other possible applications.